I asked Prue Leith about the Hollywood Handshake • Plus: Top Chef's stumble, a Survivor trend & more
Dear newsletter friends,
Good morning. I just woke up—because when I woke up earlier, it was with a blisteringly sore throat, a fever, and that realization that I kinda loved not having during the pandemic: I’m sick. 🤒
Besides writing to you, I had plans today to recap Top Chef; review Hulu’s Got to Get Out; and share some closing thoughts about Million Dollar Secret.
Those will have to wait until this weekend, at least.
Thankfully, I’d already done the voice-intensive things, like an interview that solved a Great British Bake-Off mystery and recording my podcast, in addition to the regular recaps and features below.
Enjoy!
🤝 Interviews and an answer
Tournament of Champions, which has two episodes left:
The Great American Baking Show, which returns today:
This week’s Ask Andy:
🍁 Recaps
Top Chef Destination Canada:
The Amazing Race:
Episode 6: the Dubai leg smelled like an ad, and kinda stunk
Survivor 48:
Episode 7: a tribe split once again results in two Black players voted out
These NSFW dubs of Jeff Probst, such as this, are my new favorite thing on the Internet 🤣
Below Deck Down Under:
Episode 10: the holy-shit moment was worse than expected
🔪 True crime
Reviews:
New books, listens, research, and more:
🗓️ Reality TV premieres
New and returning shows this week include: a new Chopped tournament featuring couples; new dating shows Pop the Balloon Live (a live version of the YouTube show) and Somebody’s Son (where men date with their mothers at their side); and new seasons of The Great American Baking Show and Lisa Whelchel’s show.
This week’s docs and specials include the story of a student who sued his school for watching students through webcams of their at-home laptops, and Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing.
💬 Comments of the week
Christopher wrote this about Survivor:
I'm trying to figure out why they have an unhealthy tortoise from another continent as their snuffer.
Jon wrote this about Top Chef:
I would rather this series either start at the west coast or east coast and end in Toronto. Instead of a stereotypical maple syrup, Peameal bacon and Poutine challenges, source local produce and ingredients to challenge the chefs. As city goes Toronto is a great place to live but not the most exciting one to showcase.
🗞️ News
Will Forte wrote about his friend Val Kilmer for Vulture, and revealed that he 1) got Val Kilmer to watch and fall in love with The Amazing Race, and 2) they wanted to go on the show as a team, but their agents and managers told them no. Damn you, agents and managers!
Brian Malarkey is replacing Alton Brown as Cutthroat Kitchen host
Tiffany Derry is MasterChef’s new judge; she's joining the Fox show for season 15 alongside Joe Bastianich and Gordon Ramsay. That may explain why she left Bobby's Triple Threat. The new season is titled MasterChef: Dynamic Duos and features an Amazing Race-like cast
Brent Freeburg is the Below Deck camera operator who saved deckhand Ashton's life when Ashton's foot got caught in a line and was dragged off the boat during season six. This year, he was fighting for his own life.
In February, Brent was hospitalized, comatose and suffering from strokes and subdural hematoma. Like so many freelancers who work on reality TV shows, he was without insurance. Now he's recovering in a sub-acute care facility. His mother gave a detailed account of his medical ordeals on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover costs of his care.
RuPaul's Drag Race judge Ts Madison opened the Ts Madison Starter House in Atlanta, which The Atlanta Voice reported "represents a new standard of care, designed by and for Black Trans women" and is "[r]ooted in her lived experience as a Black Trans woman who navigated homelessness and survival sex work." It's in partnership with NAESM, which says it's "designed to support and empower Black Trans women engaged in sex work."
From Sarah D. Bunting:
The Rock is writing a true-crime book. "Oh, obviously." Well, actually it does make sense -- Dwayne Johnson is set to star in an upcoming Scorsese pic about Hawaiian OC kingpin Wilford "Nappy" Pulawa; Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton, the screenwriter on that project, is also Johnson's co-author. I'm not super-stoked about all the "can you read what The Rock is writing?" heds that await us, but I'd give the book a look, come the day...
Zach Helfand's New Yorker deep dive into the bust-napping of an East Village restaurant's Elvis really brought me back to the downtown of my reckless youth.
Variety reported yesterday that Music Box Films picked up Zodiac Killer Project for distro. I'm a little surprised it took that long! My ZKP review is here.
🤩 I recommend
The Great American Baking Show, which started a new season today on The Roku Channel (which is free streaming; you don’t need a Roku device)
This week’s Below Deck, for its editing and stunning ending
My awkward interviews with Mark Burnett and Tyra Banks, which I fondly recalled this week
I’m going to go take some ibuprofen and maybe another nap. Have a great rest of your week and hopefully a virus-free weekend!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is issue 414 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 11 April 2025, and it’s slightly disappointed it couldn’t convince Prue Leith to bring back the Prue Pat